The Damage Done:
Activist campaigns to install surveillance cameras on Capitol Hill light poles; Fox TV seeks broadcast rights. -2
Hugh G. Rection turns up on District voter rolls; records indicate Rection voted for
Clinton twice. -2
Metro experiments with Muzak at Blue Line stations; now people stranded on broken escalators can listen to elevator music. -4
Students at Southeast elementary school complain of maggots and bugs in cafeteria’s hot dogs; schools czar Gen. Julius Becton offers to air-drop MREs onto school playground. -7
Radio talk-show host Derek McGinty bolts WAMU (88.5 FM) for CBS gig with Bryant Gumbel; network offers Mark Plotkin position as video librarian. -4
Prince George’s County cop busts Wizards star Chris Webber for driving under influence, assaulting officer, and then calling time out. -5
Thieves steal Mayor Barry’s limousine from police department garage; police recover car but not mayor’s copy of What Color Is Your Parachute? -2
Subtotal: -26
Shots in the Arm:
Once-murder-ridden Benning Heights celebrates one year of peace on the streets; Golan Heights officials ask for pointers. +9
Sports mogul Abe Pollin presents $840,000 MCI Center sales-tax check to District; control board says that’ll be just enough to cover staff bonuses. +7
D.C. panel to scrutinize Boy Scouts’ ban on gays; Webelo leaders cry foul, saying they can’t give out patches for flower arranging. +3
Home rule activists protest hiring of chief management officer Camille Cates Barnett, a white woman overseeing a black city; after one day in bureaucracy, Barnett finds mismanagement comes in all hues. +7
Clinton authorizes $120 million in additional
aid to District: $50 million for economic development, $25 million for Metro improvements, and unspecified amount to hire more interns. +9
D.C. Commission on Women solicits nominations for 1998 D.C. Women’s Hall of Fame; Mary Treadwell is early favorite to go all the
way. +1
Subtotal: +36